Inflation Calculator
Free inflation calculator — see how much money you'll need in the future or what past dollars are worth today at a given inflation rate.
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How it works
Enter an amount, number of years, and annual inflation rate to see future cost, past equivalent value, and purchasing power lost.
About Inflation Calculator
Informational only — not professional advice. Report an error.
Your grandma paid a nickel for a movie ticket. You paid $18 last weekend for the same theater. That gap is inflation — prices rising over time, eroding what each dollar buys. A salary that never increases while groceries, rent, and healthcare climb is a real pay cut, even if the nominal paycheck stays flat.
This inflation calculator takes an amount in today's dollars, an annual inflation rate, and a number of years forward or backward. It returns future cost to maintain the same purchasing power, past equivalent value, purchasing power lost, and roughly how many years until prices double at that rate.
Financial plans that ignore inflation underestimate retirement spending and overstate how far today's savings stretch. Historical US consumer inflation averaged roughly 2–3% long term, but planning at 3–4% builds prudent margin.
Use future cost when setting long-term savings goals — a $60,000 lifestyle today may require about $81,000 nominal in ten years at 3% inflation. Use past value to translate old expenses into today's terms for comparison. Doubling time from the rule of 72 helps sanity-check long horizons — at 3%, prices double in about 24 years.
Central banks target low stable inflation; prolonged high inflation erodes fixed pensions and bond-heavy portfolios. Nominal investment returns must exceed inflation to grow real wealth — a 7% portfolio return with 3% inflation yields roughly 4% real.
Single flat inflation rate — actual CPI varies yearly and categories differ (healthcare often exceeds headline CPI). Pair with the Retirement Inflation Calculator for portfolio modeling that combines growth and withdrawal income.
Negotiating a multi-year lease or salary COLA clause? Future cost tells you the nominal dollar figure to ask for so purchasing power holds steady — bring that number to the table instead of accepting a flat percentage raise that ignores compounding.
Quick tips
- Stress-test retirement plans at 3% and 4% inflation — the gap adds up over decades.
- Healthcare and tuition often inflate faster than headline CPI; budget them separately.
- Nominal investment returns must exceed inflation for real growth — do the subtraction.
- Pair with Retirement Inflation Calculator when modeling portfolio plus withdrawals together.
Formulas
futureCost = amount × (1 + inflationRate)^yearspastValue = amount / (1 + inflationRate)^yearsdoublingYears ≈ 72 / inflationRate
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